1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a male terminal and a method of manufacturing it. More particularly, it relates to a mail terminal which has an electrical connection part formed by folding one lateral free margin of a base plate part toward a main portion thereof and a method of manufacturing such a male terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A prior art reference Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication Nos. 3-116572 discloses a male terminal having a wire connection part crimped and connected to a wire terminal and a electrical part comprising by a base plate part of the terminal and electrically connected to a female terminal. In this male terminal, the electrical connection part is formed by folding back both of the lateral free margins on opposite sides of the base plate part toward a central portion thereof. The electrical connection between the so-constructed male terminal and the female terminal is accomplished by a flexible contact piece of the female terminal in contact with the base plate part of the male terminal in the vicinity of a seam (abutting line) of the resulting opposed margins.
In the above mentioned connecting form, however, the flexible contact piece may fall in a recess defined between the opposed free margins, so that it would be impossible to obtain sufficient contact pressure required for the electrical connection between the male terminal and the female terminal. Further, at the margins, gilt for covering them is apt to come off during the folding process etc., so that the conductivity may be reduced. Thus, it should be understood that the abutting form between the flexible pieces of the female terminal and the seam of the folded margins causes a problem of insecure contact between the male terminal and the female terminal.
Under such a circumstance, there has been proposed a male terminal in which a seam of the folded margins is partially shifted from the center of the base plate part at the position where the flexible contact piece of the female terminal abuts on the base plate part. In detail, the seam is shifted to one lateral side of the electrical connection part in the range from a leading end thereof to the intermediate position in the longitudinal direction while the seam is arranged at the center of the base plate part in flexible contact piece does not fall in the recess about the seam so that the contact between the male terminal and the female terminal is realized at areas of the base plate part besides the seam, the stable connection therebetween can be obtained thereby to improve the reliability of connection.
In the above mentioned male terminal, however, since the seam is still arranged at the center of the electrical connection part in the width direction from the intermediate position of the part in the longitudinal direction through a position near to the-wire connection part, each of the folded margins has a narrow width on the upper side of the folded electrical connection part, so that the strength is lowered. Thus, if unexpected external force is applied on the electrical connection part, it may be deformed because of concentration of stress on a base portion of the electric connection part. It is noted that the above mentioned tendency of deformation would become greater as the male terminal is reduced in size.